Stamped and formed electrical contacts are disclosed in references U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,998,896 and 4,944,688. The electrical contacts therein disclosed are stamped and formed contacts adapted for disposition in an electrical connector housing which housing includes resilient latching arms adapted to deflect outwardly when the contacts are inserted into the housing. When a contact is in a fully inserted position, the latching arms will resile towards the electrical contact and frictionally engage a shoulder thereof. The electrical contacts of the foregoing references require a radiused shoulder thereon which engages the latching arm. The known inventions provide an advantageous way of connecting an electrical contact to an electrical connector housing; however, the radiused shoulder on the contact can result in a contact's removal from the electrical connector housing as the latching arm will have reduced frictional contact therewith and will therefore slide around the radiused shoulder in response to a pulling force applied to its respective wire. Thus, such a radiused shoulder can result in a decrease of the contact's retention performance.
Another known electrical contact is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,567. The electrical contact disclosed therein includes a terminal having deflectable lances which project relatively outwardly from the body of the electrical contact. As the electrical contact is inserted into an electrical connector housing, the deflectable lances will deflect inwardly in response to engagement with a camming shoulder, and then will deflect outwardly and engage a locking shoulder thereby retaining the contact in the housing. This known electrical contact advantageously latches an electrical terminal to a housing; however, the contact requires the additional step of forming the deflectable lances by lancing the walls of the contact outwardly during the contact-forming process.
The present invention seeks to overcome the deficiencies of prior connectors by providing an electrical contact which is stamped and formed, but does not necessarily require the extra step of forming lances on the contact body. Moreover, the present invention does not rely on a radiused shoulder alone for retention of the contact in the housing, but includes sharp projections formed on the contact during the forming process which will frictionally engage a latching arm of the electrical connector housing when the electrical contact is in an inserted position relative to the housing.